Highgrove Islay Single Malt

This is something that I wasn’t really aware of before this swap. Prince Charles is a known Laphroaig fanboy and hence their labels bear his warrant. This is a special series of single cask bottlings which are put out by Highgrove estate, his official residence.

It’s always released as a single cask bottling with a 12 year age statement, differing from Laphroaig’s usual 10 (or NAS these days 😦 )and at 46% ABV with no colouring or chill-filtration, as best suits the fine spirit coming off those stills.

Aged 12 years. 46% ABV. No colourant added, non-chill filtered and bottled from a single cask.

Nose: Mineral peat, present but lighter like in more mature Laphroaigs. Green apples. Buttered popcorn. Farmy notes. Potassium salt. Light woodspice and green herbs, mainly parsley salt. With some time a the farmy and briney notes become quite rich and more prominent, really like an older Laphroaig.

VFM: N/A (Though if current bottlings are comparable in quality not bad)

This was a really tasty malt in that it just had a lot of flavour to it. What was really interesting for me with this one was that it had a lot of notes and a refinement of character one usually expects in older Laphroaigs, but it also manages to keep some of the younger notes intact as well. Really a lovely whisky.